National Consortium for Open Schooling (NCOS) Annual Meeting Dates: 4-5 February, 2013 Venue: New Circuit House, Raipur, Chhattisgarh Report fo|k/kue~loZ/kuaiz/kkue~ NCOS Secretariat National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA-201309 Uttar Pradesh © National Institute of Open Schooling Published by the Secretary, National Institute of Open Schooling, A-24-25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA-201309. ii National Consortium for Open Schooling (NCOS) Annual Meeting Dates: 4-5 February, 2013 Venue: New Circuit House, Raipur, Chhattisgarh CHIEF GUEST Shri Brijmohan Agrawal Hon’ble Education Minister of Chhattisgarh HOST OF THE ANNUAL MEET OF NCOS Shri T. Radhakrishnan Chairman, Chattisgarh State Open School, Department of School Education, Govt. of Chattisgarh, Hari Bhumi Complex, Tikarapara, Raipur-492001 PROGRAMME ORGANISERS ¯ Dr. S.S. Jena ¯ Sh. U.N. Khaware Chairman Secretary National Institute of Open Schooling National Institute of Open Schooling A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA-201309, Uttar Pradesh NOIDA-201309, Uttar Pradesh ¯ Dr. Sanyam Bhardwaj ¯ Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal Director (SSS) Director (Academic) National Institute of Open Schooling National Institute of Open Schooling A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA-201309, Uttar Pradesh NOIDA-201309, Uttar Pradesh Dr. P.K. Chauhan Senior Executive Officer (NCOS) (Coordinator, NCOS Annual Meeting) National Institute of Open Schooling A-24/25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, NOIDA-201309, U.P. iii FOREWORD After success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Central and the State Governments have been striving for Universalisation of Secondary Education (USE). With Right to Education (RTE) in place, there is a great influx of class VIII pass outs seeking admission in Secondary Education Courses. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) being operationalised by the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is giving impetus to the endeavours for achieving the goal of USE. RMSA has envisaged that 15% of the students clientele at the Secondary stage may be taken care of by the Open Schooling System. The Open Schools viz., the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and the State Open Schools (SOSs) are now required to upscale substantially their programmes and activities in order to provide appropriate responses to the challenge of USE. The RMSA Framework has made provision of financial assistance to the Open Schools in this regard. The items for which financial assistance will be available have been mentioned in this Report. The RMSA Framework has also made provision of financial assistance to the states not having SOSs so far to plan and operationalise their Open Schooling programmes. It may be added here that advocacy, consultancy and resource support from NIOS would also be available to the existing SOSs and would-be SOSs as per their need. The present Annual Meet of the National Consortium for Open Schooling (NCOS) has given final shape to the constitution of NCOS. The General Body of NCOS and its Executive Committee have been set up. The NCOS Secretariat is now required to plan and organize vigorously the programmes related to promotion of Open Schooling and discharge enthusiastically the coordination and clearing house functions. Realising the need of skill development of youth as a priority agenda, it is suggested that the State Open Schools may make provision of offering relevant and need based Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes. They are welcome to seek guidance and resource support from NIOS as it has a rich experience of operationalising VET. NIOS has set up a Capacity Building Cell. As suggested in the present Annual Meet, NIOS would organise the orientation/training programmes for the Resource Persons of SOSs. The SOSs may utilize the services of these Resource Persons for training of their Open Schooling functionaries. There is a need to prepare a consolidated Profile of the Open Schools in India (NIOS and SOSs). We hope that SOSs would furnish promptly the informational inputs for the Profile. The proforma for feedback in this regard will be sent by the NCOS Secretariat to SOSs. In the meanwhile, as suggested in the Annual Meet, the NCOS Secretariat has started work on preparation of “NCOS Website”. I am thankful to Dr. Sanyam Bhardwaj, Director, Department of Student Support Services, NIOS, Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal, Director (Academic), NIOS and Shri U.N. Khaware, Secretary NIOS for planning and organizing the Annual Meet of NCOS. I am extremely grateful to Shri Brijmohan Agrawal, Hon’ble Education Minister of Chhattisgarh state for inaugurating the Annual Meet of NCOS and sharing his ideas and experience with the delegates. Our thanks to the Chairman, State Open School, Chhattisgarh and his staff for hosting the programme. We are grateful to the delegates from the SOSs/ Education Departments who participated enthusiastically in the programme. Dr. Pawan Kumar Chauhan, Senior Executive Officer (NCOS) deserves appreciation for initiating and coordinating the entire programme. S.S. Jena Chairman, NIOS & Chairperson NCOS April 2013 v CONTENTS Foreword V Overview 1 Recommendations 3 Annual Meet of NCOS (Backdrop) 5 Inaugural Session 7 Proceedings of the Sessions Session - I : ¯ Presentation about NIOS 10 : ¯ Presentations by State Open Schools (SOSs) 14 Session - II : ¯ Strategy /Modalities for Upscaling of the Open Schooling 25 Programmes in the States in context of achieving the goal of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) Session - III : ¯ Constitution of the National Consortium for Open Schooling (NCOS) 30 and its adoption ¯ Election of the Chairperson of the General Body of NCOS 31 and Members of the Executive Committee ¯ Open Schooling : The Policy Perspective 32 Concluding Session : ¯ Brief Proceedings of the Meet and Decisions Taken/Action Plans. 35 Open House Discussion ¯ Concluding and Consolidation 35 Annexures Annexure - I : Programme Schedule 38 Annexure - II : Constitution of NCOS 40 Annexure - III : Brief information of State Open Schools 50 Annexure - IV : List of Participants 75 vii Overview Inaugural Session The Annual Meet of the National Consortium for Open Schooling (NCOS) was organized at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) from 4 to 5 February, 2013. The Meeting was inaugurated by Shri Brijmohan Agrawal, Hon’ble Education Minister of the Chhattisgarh State. In his inaugural address, the Hon’ble Minister emphasized the need of providing access to good quality education both through the formal schooling system and the Open Schooling System. In order to meet the challenges of access and equity, the Open Schooling system is required to be placed on a sound pedestal and it should be given due recognition. He appreciated the Chairman, NIOS for setting up the Regional Centre of NIOS at Raipur. It would give impetus to the open schooling programme in Chhattisgarh state. Dr. S.S. Jena, Chairman, NIOS offered the services of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to the States for promotion of open schooling programme. He informed that under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), a provision is being made for providing financial assistance and resource support to the State Open Schools (SOSs) for up scaling of their open schooling programmes. Provision is also being made for resource support for setting up of new SOSs. Shri U. N. Khaware, Secretary, NIOS proposed a vote of thanks. Presentation About NIOS Dr. Sanyam Bhardwaj, Director, Department of Student Support Services, NIOS gave highlights of the programmes and activities of NIOS. ¯ NIOS provides Open Schooling opportunities by making available the following courses: i) Open Basic Education (OBE) programme ii) Secondary and Senior Secondary Education courses iii) Vocational Education and Training programmes iv) Life Enrichment programmes ¯ NIOS functions through five major Departments at its Headquarters,16 Regional Centres and more than 5000 Study Centres. It has a current enrolment of about 2.2 million students which makes it the largest open schooling system in the world. ¯ NIOS offers several flexibilities in its programmes right from admission to examination and certification. Some of these are 24x7 on-line admission, freedom to choose subjects, credit accumulation and credit transfer from other Boards, support to learners through Personal Contact Programme (PCP) and Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) and On Demand Examination. ¯ At the Secondary level, the mediums include Hindi, English, Urdu, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati and Oriya. At the Senior Secondary level, the mediums include Hindi, English and Urdu. ¯ The HUNAR Project of NIOS for skill Development and training of minority community girls was first experimented in Bihar and thereafter launched in Delhi. 1 ¯ Some significant initiatives and programmes of NIOS include : ® Mukta Vidya Vani – Audio Streaming. ® Diploma in Elementary Education. ® Up scaling of qualifications of Primary Teachers of West Bengal. ® New Vocational Education courses in collaboration with industries etc. ® Free education to Jail inmates. ® Scheme of providing quality education in Madrasas (SP QEM). Presentations by State Open Schools (SOSs) ¯ During the meeting five state open schools (SOSs), viz., Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Assam made their presentations. The presentations included data/information related to setting